1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and a method for providing payment service in a mobile communication system, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for providing payment service between portable terminals using a FACILITY message.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, portable terminals have become miniaturized and the demand for these portable terminals has increased. Moreover, these portable terminals have begun to incorporate additional functions such as a financial payment service.
Typically, the financial payment services provided by portable terminals provide a function of processing various financial payments using a close distance communication module such as an Infrared Data Association module (IrDA), a Bluetooth module, and/or an a semiconductor chip containing credit card data. Also, portable terminals provide a function of processing a financial payment using a rate of a portable terminal when a user selects the portable terminal as a method of processing the financial payment via the Internet.
As described above, the financial payment service provided by portable terminals according to conventional methods requires a communication module such as the above-described IrDA or Bluetooth module, and/or additional chip. Accordingly, a user is inconvenienced by having to purchase a portable terminal having the communication module and/or chip, or by having to separately mount the communication module and/or chip in order to use the financial payment service. Also, in the case where the portable terminal provides financial payment service via the Internet, the user is typically inconvenienced by having to perform the Internet access in advance for the financial payment. Also, since the financial payment service is not conventionally provided between portable terminals, a direct payment between users cannot be made.